'Nadella has all the right attributes to reinvent Microsoft'

'Nadella has all the right attributes to reinvent Microsoft'

It is a proud moment for Indian Americans to see Satya Nadella to be at the helm driving innovations that could impact what the rest of the world does.

As Satya Nadella takes over as CEO of technology giant Microsoft, people of Indian origin in America are ecstatic.

"I am very pleased with his appointment and proud of his accomplishment. As fellow Indians, we experience pride when one of us achieves something exceptional at the global level," Venktesh Shukla, President, TiE, Silicon Valley told Rediff.com, who had last week congratulated Nadella after he read about Nadella being shortlisted for the post of CEO. Nadella was also the keynote speaker at TiEcon 2013.

He said, "I congratulated him and told him that the TiE community of 10,000 members and 2,500 charter members spread over 60 chapters in 17 countries is proud of his accomplishments. This appointment as CEO of Microsoft is however much more consequential."

'Nadella has all the right attributes to reinvent Microsoft'

Shukla said that as head of the one of the largest technology companies, he (Nadella) could be driving innovations that could impact what the rest of the world does.

"In my view, this is bigger than someone winning a Nobel Prize because of its potential impact on the millions in the world in the short term," said Shukla and added his challenge is going to be in navigating Microsoft's strategy in consumer space - mobile and gaming because his background is primarily in enterprise space.

Calling the appointment a perfect choice for Microsoft, Global Equities analyst Trip Chowdhry said, "Nadella brings all the right attributes to reinvent Microsoft, and those attributes are strong technical background, strong business background and both vertical and horizontal skills and strong customer communication skills. He is one of the most consummate executive and combination of Bill Gates and Satya Nadella is very significant for Microsoft."

Reacting to Nadella's appointment Vish Mishra, former TiE President and Venture Capitalist at venture capitalist with Clearstone Venture Partners said, "It's a thrilling moment. We are very proud of Satya as he takes the helm at Microsoft."

'Nadella has all the right attributes to reinvent Microsoft'

Running such an iconic global company that popularised personal computing which now has products and services for both consumers and enterprises is a huge task. "I am sure he is up to it, being an insider," Mishra told Rediff.com.

On the upcoming challenges, he said Nadella’s biggest challenge will be to strike a balance between rapid innovation and entrenched tradition of slower read of the markets and less than timely delivery of products amid growing competition.

Equally challenging are to serve a continuum of customers, consumers to enterprises. And how nimble will Microsoft become under his leadership to adapt to the changing needs of the global marketplace.

'Nadella has all the right attributes to reinvent Microsoft'

Kanwal Rekhi, Managing Director at Inventus Capital said, "It is great to see Nadella being named as a CEO of iconic company like Microsoft. Microsoft has been a fast follower, rather than an innovator, for a very long time. It is very hard to be a fast follower now that cycles have become so much shorter. Satya will have to refocus Microsoft, get better at execution and try to get ahead of the innovation cycle!"

Nadella after his appointment said, "Our industry does not respect tradition - it only respects innovation,” he says.

"The opportunity ahead for Microsoft is vast, but to seize it, we must move faster, focus and continue to transform. I see a big part of my job as accelerating our ability to bring innovative products to our customers more quickly," Nadella explained.